Scientific Core 3 (SC3). Project Summary/Abstract All three Projects heavily use this core. It will serve as a centralized resource for assistance in many animal procedural support services and training, and performance of surgical and nonsurgical models of acute and chronic myocardial infarction or inflammation, along with basal and temporal measurements of cardiac function. The core will also serve as a valuable educational resource for Program investigators and enable investigators to examine the role of their proteins in in vivo disease processes. The Animal Models Core has six primary objectives: First, the core will provide procedural support services and centralized training for various phlebotomy services, peritoneal injections, oral gavages and other animal manipulations as needed. Second, the core will perform non-surgical models of acute and chronic inflammation, including multiple types of peritonitis models, LPS models, and lung injury/inflammation models. Third, the core will assist Program investigators with isolation of hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow and perform bone marrow transplantation as described in the Projects. Fourth, the core will assist Program investigators in performing surgical models of acute and chronic MI. This will include: (i) Acute Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion (I- R) Injury in mice by brief ligation of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) followed by reperfusion. (ii) Chronic LAD ligation model of MI as a model of post ischemia induced heart failure (HF). Fifth, the core will provide assessment of myocardial injury, strain and function by monitoring serum markers. Non-invasive myocardial function and architecture will also be assessed by echocardiography. Sixth, the core will provide centralized atherosclerosis lesion quantification services. The Animal Models Core will thus assist Program Investigators in performance of state-of-the-art cardiovascular and inflammation related animal model studies, while also serving as an educational resource.